Win Win Win!

A Mahendra fridge magnet to the first person who can tell us who the new cat reading the news is.

a) Gus
b) McFarlane

Wow! JC...

Indeed, I know Mahendra is the main man but JC stole the limelight tonight. This photograph does not do his tie justice, but let it be noted that his coal black jacket, white shirt and kinda silver white tie with pomegranate diagonal stripes was the picture of a gentleman. If a man showed up on my doorstep for a date dressed like that he could be sure to be invited in for a little Di and Charles.

Alas it is not all gushing. I thought the tie might have been a tad wide but could not be sure as it did not matter how I maneuvered myself around the television, I could not get a proper frontal view of the man - JC, give us a full frontal! And remember the cuffs, we want to see them.


Mahendra is not to be forgotten. He was wearing a Sunshine D yellow tie (or was it gold? Let's say Paris Daisy) on a Mystic shirt (play around till you get it).

I could not tell if the tie had a subtle pattern, I suspect that it did and that my old television did not do it justice. The Raghunath was in top form and rather jolly. Pen in hand he bid us farewell with a "Hope you have a lovely evening. Good night." I was planning to do just that when Top Billing sashayed into my lounge. Oh, how do I despise? Let me count the ways. For starters, I would rather be eating worms...

All quiet on the southern front

Yep, for weeks now I am at a loss at 7 p.m. Without a television, my nights are not entirely empty - I've got books, you know - but they are quiet. No news, no Mahendra, no Johendra. There is no Tsepiso, no newsbie perhaps. No longer is my screen suddenly dominated by an ill-chosen necklace that could have been a chandelier at a shabby-chic, quasi-Eastern-European tearoom. There are no longer the ties that bind Mahendra to me.

No, it's all bookish. With my chicken mayonnaise sandwich in one hand, book in other, I try and forget what I am missing. But so it will happen that I hear the faint but unmistakeable sound of a television next door. I strain my ears, even perhaps lean against the wall - no, I get a glass and use it as a stethoscope, but no luck. I cannot hear much.

Is it Mahendra I cannot hear? What is he wearing? By God, what is he wearing? Will someone just tell me...

All I can do is scroll through my few folders of old pictures of the Raghunath.

What does the M's tie have in common with Cape Town Restaurants?

After a weekend of good dining and feeling a little tired of Cape Town's faux summer I decided to peruse some restaurant menus on the web (really inspired by the "Dine 2008...where to dine" booklet).

I heard an old familiar voice emanating from my telly and spun around in my blue chair to come face to face with a blue knot, a super sized samoosa obscuring everything on the telly screen. Trying to find Mahendra behind the tie I realised with chilling insight that the Raghunath's tie knot was as inflated as 99% of the restaurant prices in Cape Town!

Ever so slightly horrified and in protest to make up for this weekend's excesses I will cook at home next weekend. Trying to find a balance I will invite RK and other gentleman attendees to dress in suitable attire, that is, ties knotted in such a fashion that I can see their pretty faces.

[Note: Despite the byline, this post was not entered by RK, but by AT]

The bearded one

Saturday, some chilli con carne bubbling on the stove, a lazy day at an end. Well, only got to bed at six this morning, after dinner at a decent Italian jobbie where the chef had no problem with me asking to convert the arrabbiata into puttanesca. Yum. My companion's artichoke and ricotta panzotti in sage butter was delicate in flavour, but quite rich.

Well, long after-dinner conversations fueled by some special whisky, swiss chocolate and cigarettes heralded the dawn. So, late day, some take-out for midday breakfast and here we are.



While I have had access to a tv, I have not spotted the Raghunath; but I have spotted much of the bearded one, on his way to another century no doubt. I must ask: what's up with the beard bro?


Is it to provide protection? To prevent the chin-strap from chafing at the chin? He looks so unbalanced, what with the bald pate and the afro under the chin - as if he might be upside down.

Shave it bru!

Friends, Raghunathians and Mahendrians...

while you thought I had grown lazy, nothing can be further from the truth. While I was away on the International Space Station, researching the effects of zero gravity on knotting ties, rogues took off with my audio-visual equipment, thus robbing me of a vital resource in reporting on the Raghunath. Thus the dearth in posts over the past few months as I spent the time in despair, robbed of the voice of the Raghunath and his spectacular ties.

I scroll through the archive on the blog, gazing longingly at pictures of the special one.

What is to be done!?